Manny Pacquiao is currently on a flight headed to Los Angeles, where he'll meet with his U.S. attorneys to prepare for a Friday deposition in his defamation case against Floyd Mayweather. After that, Pacquiao will begin a busy schedule that will see him make several important stops across the country, with the final destination being the former "Mecca of Boxing", Madison Square Garden, where he'll meet another popular Asian who is currently holding court. According to promoter Bob Arum, Pacquiao will have a face-to-face meeting with New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin before heading back to the Philippines.
"He will do something for Nike in the morning, shoot some more stuff in the afternoon and then, we are taking him to Madison Square Garden for a meet and greet with the new Asian superstar in basketball Jeremy Lin," Arum would tell Ronnie Nathanielsz of the Manila Standard Today. Pacquiao, an avid basketball fan, recently showed his support for Lin when he took to his official Twitter page and posted, "Jeremy Lin has stepped up just in the Knick of time. He is a great player," and "God Bless Jeremy Lin." It makes perfect sense for Top Rank to schedule a meet-and-greet between Pacquiao and Lin at this time, as they are the two biggest Asian stars in their respective sports.
Much like Pacquiao took the boxing world by storm, Jeremy Lin has exploded onto the NBA scene. After being cut by two clubs, Lin, an undrafted Asian-American player from Harvard, emerged from the Knicks' bench to score more points (109) in his first four NBA starts than any player ever since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976. His play has propelled the Knicks to win 7 games in a row and, more importantly, has debunked a number of stereotypes, proving that Asians and players from Ivy League schools can indeed thrive in the NBA. Debunking stereotypes is something that Pacquiao is also very familiar with, having risen through the rankings to become an 8-division world champion by defeating opponents considered to much bigger and better than him. The meeting will no doubt go a long way to help promote Pacquiao's scheduled June 9th clash with Timothy Bradley.